Nine In The Afternoon
by vanatines
Summary: A night in Vegas could lead to many things, including, but are definitely not limited to; a pair of matching wedding bands, an expensive house bought in the golden districts of Nevada and the dawning law of a one-year detain before a proper divorce. Let's see how that works out. —GakupoKaito AU.
1. Chapter 1: Vegas Lights

**Notes**: Privyet, Vanatines speaking ~ I decided to update my old Chapter One with this one, hopefully giving more of a broad spectrum of what to expect from me. Nevertheless, I'm still quite pleased about this story and hopefully I should be able to update daily. It's an old idea of mine, and I think it's still a pretty decent one, so yeah, why not? Please do enjoy this as much as I did. :)  
**Chapter**: 1/24

* * *

**Chapter One**: Vegas Lights

Gakupo had never been terribly fond of going to rambunctious places such as nightclubs and bars and casinos and whatever had the same rowdy environment as such. It was clearly not part of his nature; that wasn't the complete truth, yet that wasn't a complete lie either. At some beneficial events, although as if he had something to gain if he attended such party, he would come, or likewise, at the exception of the selfish need for celebration, whereat he would also attend. Most of the time, Gakupo had insisted that it required it be an important celebration, and that Friday night, where he was found fastening a black tie around his collar as he studied himself analytically in the mirror, had fallen right under his rule of requirements.

That day had been his birthday and was for several hours now, but as nighttime struck and the casino slash hotel he was staying at was brought to life with loud, reverberating dance music pounding through perspired air, a fresh batch of colourful, vivid drinks were served and worn dice were being put to what they did best at, it was finally time to give the twenty-third year of Gakupo's life a good old welcoming.

Having not celebrated his birthday for the previous few years, Gakupo had felt like that he needed his break and flaunt to everyone that it was his birthday. His year of the dreading age of twenty-two had been filled with frustration, keyboard banging, paper ripping, blood and sweat pouring out like waterfalls at every inch of his skin as he slaved himself away. He had pressured himself a great deal, sticking his own head down the toilet, hitting himself repeatedly with a wooden baseball bat, snatching his own collar roughly and shoving him against his metallic locker, mentally abusing his work ethic and choice of lifestyle. The suffering was very similar to his former highschool, the only differences being that he was the bully (which, he never had been, living a—mind you—completely normal, well-liked highschool life) and he was being bullied. (Which, he also never had been, also living a—mind you—completely normal, well-liked highschool life.)

It had been hellish, it had been rough, but Gakupo finally grew out of his bully/victim skin and had thoughtfully decided his resolution for the next twelve months of being twenty three was to respect himself, his body, his mind and his daily lifestyle. The bully had finally matured and the victim finally learned how to defend himself, both after many days of yearning.

So in a way, Gakupo had grown up.

"Gakupo! Hurry _up_ already, everyone's getting impatient!"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming!" Gakupo called back, hurriedly loosening his tie just a little less to uncurtain his first two buttons which both remained uncuffed. Hey; it was his twenty third birthday, he was an adult, he was a guy—it was only natural for him to expect sex whilst he was in Vegas, and when that day just seemingly so happened to fall on his birthday. Call Gakupo narcissistic, but if he said so himself, he deemed himself to be quite good looking, really, to put it in his own words, so bedding one would be very easy.

Pushing his sleeves up to his elbows and giving himself one last glance in the mirror, he gave himself a last, reassuring thumbs-up before he slipped on his shoes and headed out the door, meeting up with his small gang of friends.

Lily landed a hard pat on Gakupo's back and tossed him a box. "Happy birthday, loser. That's your gift. It's a Rolex, so don't go ahead and break it, y'hear me?' She delineated with a slight grin, looking very pretty in her all-leather closet consisting of a jacket, thigh-high shorts and ankle boots. She leaned up a little, landing a soft, friendly peck on Gakupo's cheek. "Seriously though. Happy birthday."

"Thank you, Li," Gakupo offered a genuine smile to Lily, who looked very pleased wih herself.

"I've got your gift, I'll give it to you tomorrow," Kyo lazily informed, stretching his arms out with a tired yawn parting his lips. Never being the sort of guy to go out and party, Kyo had always preferred to stay inside and watch TV until he passed out, but the brunet was practically forced to come along to celebrate Gakupo'a milestone in life. "But happy birthday anyways."

Galaco placed laced her arms akimbo, shifting her weight on to the other foot. "Your present's still being shipped, wait a week, will you?" She asked with a small sigh. "Didn't forget though. Honest."

"Of course, Galaco, Kyo," Gakupo shook his head with a light smile. The thought that they cared enough to head down to Vegas—although most of them had to admit, they were here primarily for the booze and party—was easily enough for his birthday, but he greatly appreciated their gifts either way. "What about you, Yuuma?" He finally asked, turning around to look at the pink-haired man with a slight, fixed stare, almost as if he was glaring at him. "What did you get me?"

"Nothing," Yuuma only shrugged nonchalantly with a light laugh. "But if I find a hot guy or chick, I'll sacrifice my own pleasure and hook you up with them. So there, your make-do present for the night, I'll get you a proper present soon. This trip was expensive enough as it was..."

Gakupo sighed and rolled his eyes, shaking his head. As of to be expected of Yuuma.

"Eh, well. Let's just hurry up and get going, shall we?"

**xxx**

Kaito on the other hand, seemed quite eager to spend the night downstairs at the life of the party. He, Meiko, Merli, Akaito and Yohio had freshly arrived in the hotel slash casino several hours back and after unpacking their clothes and fawning over the many, many luxuries the hotel had in store for them; the gigantic swimming pool, the huge balconies perched by every hotel room, the glamorous, modern hotel rooms and the complimentary confectionaries, snacks and soda cans (—Oh, and hilariously enough, condoms—) located in the cupboards; just to name a few. Meiko and Merli had dolled themselves up already for the night, Merli pulling her colourful head of hair into a long, loose ponytail and Meiko looking very handsome in a dress that clung to her, modestly pronouncing her curves.

Kaito had freshly graduated out of university, successfully nabbing a degree in Musical Studies and the celebration was most definitely going to be a wonderful one. One gap year, six years of working for that degree, and now he'd finally had done it; the feeling was euphoric. The thought that Kaito didn't have to study anymore and the fact that he was wealthy with a plethora of knowledge practically enabled him to be able to signed to a recording label was enough to bring a large smile to his face, and probably even on the worst of his days. Now he had his knowledge, his wide spectrum of talents in the forms of musical and performing, all he needed was someone to willingly hearken him, a little luck on his side and a song that would appeal to himself, as well as many others.

But now, for the next few weeks, he would be enjoying life, enjoying time and having a good vacation away from work. He'd be singing jolly ditties to himself in the kitchen as he made his breakfast and not be constantly on vocal rest for straining his chords too much; he'd be prancing around foolishly to his selection of music rather than banging his head hopelessly against the piano keys; he could sing scales wrong and laugh at himself for being so terribly off-key and not be screaming at himself, lowering his self-esteem by a ton.

Kaito headed downstairs, raking his fingers through his hair—still a little damp from his last-minute rinse before—and joined his staunch group of friends downstairs, lingering just at the bar table. Yohio, already with two long glasses of bright-pink coloured liquid in his hands, strutted over to Kaito with a light smile gracing his lips as he offered the drink to Kaito. "Come on," the Swede prompted, leaning against the bit of wall, sipping his own drink slowly. "Drink up."

"Yeah, yeah, alright," Kaito shrugged and rolled his eyes, taking a long sip of the drink; strawberry, definitely, with a little sparkle to it. The taste was pronounced and kind of refined, adopting a richer tone to the drink. It was slightly, although enjoyably bitter and Kaito found himself taking more gulps of the liquid, his lips curling into a slight smile of delight.

"Enjoying it?"

"Yeah," he admitted, glancing at Yohio. He drained the rest of his vial in a few seconds flats, passing it over to Yohio, who looked very amused. "... Get me another."

"... Sure."

Whilst Yohio went over to get another glass for Kaito, the blue-haired man had decided to wander off and explore, taking that the blond would spot him in no time flat. He had a quick glance over the poker tables, wandered past the cute little cocktail tables and only merely nodded at the people who glanced his way. Kaito wasn't one to approach, unsurprisingly and unwittingly too shy to do so despite his profusion of getting so much attention wherever he went. Despite that, he was quite confident when talking to people and had this odd little quirk of being easy to talk to, to, well, everyone, nearly.

Sauntering past a full-seated table, Kaito was just about as ready to head downstairs to the more boisterous part of the casino; the actual nightclub, he was stopped as suddenly, a large hand stoppered his shoulder, making Kaito momentarily stiffen.. Slowly, he turned around, luckily being greeted by a rather devilishly handsome sight.

The guy who'd stopped him in his tracks was about a good six feet tall, just a head taller than Kaito. A long curtain of purple hair canopied his broad shoulders and he was graced well with good looks; a pair of clear, sharp azure eyes, an up-turned nose and a wonderful body and face structure to die for. Kaito only smiled nervously under his shadow, admittedly intimidated by the man's Adonis features.

"Could I buy you a drink?" the stranger began, a lopsided smile parting his lips as he tilted his head charmingly.

And that little pick-up, just those six words had made each other's life into disorder.

Oh, if only none of them were feeling lonely that very night.

* * *

It was well into midnight a few hours later. Yohio had decided to randomly go out for a random bout of clothes shopping after many shots, Merli was busy having a blast gambling, greedily claiming another large stack of money turn after turn and Akaito was already getting busy with someone else; Galaco and Lily were having their own little drinking game, gathering a large throng of spectators as each tried to see how far they both could hold their liquor, seeing as both were quite the weak drinkers and Kyo had somehow manage to slink away from the life of the party and back to his room, quite happy to curl up in his master bed once again.

Yuuma and Meiko had easily self-assigned themselves to be the chaperones of wherever their best friends had decided to venture off, and that meant did nothing but smirk at the two as they ordered another lot of alcohol, drinking themselves stupid as they did so.

"Y'know," Kaito began with a shameless slur, his voice dropping an octave lower, thanks to the side-effects of inebriation. His head leaned against Gakupo's firm shoulder and his top three shirt buttons were undone, hair already tousled. "—Y'know— y'knowwhatweshoulddo?"

Gakupo's arms slid around Kaito's waist and pulled him into his lap, also too drunk to care for his usual high sense of pride. He nuzzled his nose into the crook of Kaito's neck in a somewhat affectionate manner, all ears for him. His head of hair had fallen out of its tie, messily splaying all over his shoulders and back, some unruly strands of his lilac hair falling onto his face. "Ye'?"

"Well, y'see here Gaku," Kaito continued, hilariously failing at attempting to guide his cup of booze into his lips. He dismissed his efforts quickly, pushing it back against the wooden bar table. "Since I—" he jabbed a finger at himself, "really like you—" he poked a finger at Gakupo's chest. "We should, ah, I don't know? How 'bout a good ol' bout of marryin' and sealin' th' deal? Y'think that'd sound like a blast? Eh, would ya, Gaku?"

Meiko and Yuuma burst out laughing.

Gakupo on the other hand instantly perked up from Kaito's neck, face brightening instantly at the idea. "That's—that's—fucking—fantastic!" He spluttered, nodding obtusely at the idea. "A-and— W-w-we could, like, also buy a fuckin' house and stuff and life together and cook each other breakfast and—b-be together for ever and— Fuck! We need to do this; now!"

And whilst Kaito had agreed very passionately about the idea with a great shout, and Yuuma and Meiko couldn't help but only double over even great amounts of laughter, little did they know, the two had quickly stripped themselves down of any last shred of self-respect and morality they had.

**xxx**

"I now pronounce Gakupo Kamui and Kaito Shion as man and man, bonded together by th the twines of life," the priest droned, disgusted out of his wits as he watched the two kiss with some sort of raving passion that he would never understand. It wasn't the fact that they were two people of the same gender, no, _not at all_, it was just the way he could clearly smell the strong scent of alcohol burn on their tongues and evaporate in the air, the fact that they were too drunk to care that they just wasted their whole life potential, the fact that the priest wouldn't even find it funny to imagine about their reactions the next morning, it had been a meaningless, disgusting cycle and the priest had gotten far too used to it to even care.

"You may now kiss," the priest declared and turned his head away as the two obeyed and deepened their kiss, stumbling out of the chapel minutes later.

The priest sighed, flopping his head down on the altar as he heard whoops, exclaims and rowdy laughter emitting from the reception room.

Would they be damned.

* * *

**End notes**: And there we have it ~ Kinda boring, but yeah... Please leave your inputs in the box, I really love reading what you guys have to say.

- Vana


	2. Chapter 2: Taxidermy of Me & You

**Notes**: I'm so sorry for not reaching to my ultimatum and not uploading this last week. I lost some of my files, including the original chapter 2 which I lost sleep over. So I had to write it all again, after a good hour of crying in frustration. I did change like, over half, so yeah. Das all good.  
**Chapters**: 2/19

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**Chapter Two**: Taxidermy of Me & You

The after-effects of a crazy night of inebriation had been quite... interesting to say in the least, as Kaito Shion slowly arose from his deep slumber, eyelids fighting hard against the sunlight.

It was a bright, almost mocking Saturday afternoon. Already, Kaito could hear the hustle and bustle that busy Vegas brought in; trams whirring, cars and motorbikes purring against worn roads, happy laughter, snippets of conversation here and there and the street music singing pleasantly into the air. The sun was shining brightly, even seeping through the velvet curtains, and irritatingly enough, had splashed on Kaito's face; the reason he woke up in the first place.

Kaito covered his sweaty face with his hands, brittle fingers tightening around his locks in a way to wake himself up. Then finally, he took a proper look with a jolt of his head, staring around the room he was currently in curiously. The first thing he noticed that this wasn't his accommodation at all.

The room was fashioned in shades of grand golds with tints of deep reds expertly thrown here and there. A wooden desk was tucked away in a corner, and a bedside table of the same material sat on his left. Both tables had a nice, clinquant vase filled with a bright bouquet of sunflowers and gypsophilas and the room smelt lightly and pleasantly of plumerias. The scene would've looked ingratiating provided there had not been a clump of decanters and carafe littered everywhere, a crumpled pile of clothes circling the bed, tattered and unkempt, and a load of poker chips, playing cards, several butted cigarettes and gold coins were thrown around lazily. Kaito stared around in complete confusion and horror, straightening himself up. The silken blanket covering his body had fell, revealing his awfully bare chest, also uncurtaining the shameless 'V' outline of his hips, being just about enough information to tell Kaito that the obvious _one_, he was naked and the definite _two_, he had sex.

"Crap..." He rumbled lowly to himself, hanging his head low. That would explain the many things; the various glass bottles littering the place, foreign clothes and as Kaito slowly turned his head to the side colloquially, the mop of long, purple hair splaying on the satin pillow, equally-as-naked as the young man was.

Then realisation had nailed Kaito and an almighty, although hilarious scream escaped out of his lips, his body instinctively throwing himself onto the edge of the headboard, spluttering incoherently as he pulled the blankets to his bare chest. He breathed audibly with erraticism, his face flushed watermelon red. He heard his heart noticeably thump harder in his chest, pupils blown and toes instantly tightening.

What. The. _Hell_.

"... Wh-wha...?"

Kaito could only uselessly attempt to inch away and tuck himself as tightly as he could at the nook of the master bed as he watched the alien slowly wake up, stirr in a low growl and taking his own sweet time before he slowly rose up, closing his eyes carelessly as he let his head tip over the top of the headboard.

"Who... the... hell... are... _you_?" Kaito breathed, instantly magnificently wary of this stranger.

The man's head tilted slightly to the side, instantly opening his eyes and Kaito couldn't help but flinch as those bright, hauntingly crystal blue eyes stared straight at him. The man said nothing for a moment, only closely observing Kaito's feature and thus succeeding in making the said young man awfully uncomfortable. "I'm Gakupo," he only answered unblinkingly. Kaito tasted the words in his thoughts; it had a nice clip to it, he decided. "I'm guessing I slept with you last night."

"Yes, you slept with me," Kaito clarified with a pronounced tone. "Why are you so relaxed?!"

Gakupo only snorted and rolled his head to the other side, nimble fingers fiddling with the bedsheets. Those fingers had been inside Kaito and that thought enough was easily able to make Kaito shiver _unutterably_. "It's fucking _Vegas_, I in the least expected to be sleeping with someone in one of my inebriated nights," he pointed out, his voice finely cut and smooth. "You're simply overreacting."

"I'm _not_," Kaito spat defensively, although he couldn't help but admit that Gakupo was in fact right. This was 'fabulous Las Vegas' after all, bizarre things happened and dwelt while they were and weren't here. Pimps and prostitutes shamelessly strutted down the sidewalks after dark and even in the mornings, go-go dancers roamed around freely like air nymphs, so of course having sex with particularly someone of the same gender shouldn't be of any surprise, not while they were in the city of nightclubs, casimos and anarchy. "It's just... It's just...— _Crazy_, really."

Gakupo raised his eyebrows, pushing his weight to his right cheek with a nonchalant shrug. "Not really, honestly," he disagreed casually. "Whatever. We should just go ahead and get changed, have a shower and get you back to your own room. I take you've had one night stands before?"

"Y... Yes?"

"Well that's exactly what this is. Nothing more, nothing less." Gakupo ended firmly with a nod. "No romantic feelings, this was just a night of crazy sex. I doubt anything else happened so we'll just leave it at that."

...

"... Huh."

"What?"

"N-no, nothing...— I don't remember much from last night, but I remember you acted a lot different.

"It was my birthday, of course I'd act like that, I was happy as hell. My mood's only bad today because I have a han—" Gakupo was undeniably interrupted by the loud chime of his phone and he exhaled deeply, mild irritation clear in his voice. "Wait a minute," he muttered and his hand clambered clumsily for his cell, bringing it up to his ear and pressing the answer button without looking at the Caller ID.

"What—"

"Check your left hand."

And with that voice that undeniably belonged to Yuuma roped through, the call was ended abruptly and Gakupo was left in a daze. He furrowed both eyebrows and swiped a glance at his left hand, taking nothing of it until he saw a glint sparkle off his forefinger. He took another look and instantly froze, the glint coming into better view and coming into focus as a gold, simple wedding band.

Without even asking, Gakupo haphazardly snatched Kaito's left hand, making him yelp unexpectedly as he studied the fingers. Kaito stiffened just the same as he saw what was on his left hand too; the same, glinting gold ring, no differed in pattern.

They both froze, staring at their rings for an eternity before slowly, their heads crooked up a little, both staring at each other right in the eyes, both outright horrified.

"We're married."

Well—It certainly wasn't a one-night stand anymore... Although they weren't able to digest the news fully before their glances had become one of sickness and simultaneously, they jumped from their bed, rushing to get it to the bathroom to sanction their burden of hangovers first.

**xxx**

"Let's never meet again," Kaito decided with a cold, inflicted voice, scrambling out of Gakupo's room after both had finished their bouts of coughing, gagging and vomiting. They couldn't even bear to look at each other in the eyes after that they realised that they were practically betrothed to each other now. After straightening out of his scarf, Kaito turned around and only managed to get a glimpse of Gakupo before he abruptly slammed the door in his face. The blue-haired man flinched slightly at the sound, his lips perking into a grimace.

_'Rude, much?... Ugh. And to think I'm married to him—'_

_'Oh, cut it out. You're not married to him. Physically, yes, but screw it, throw the ring down the drain for all you're worth. Not like we did anything else... Right?'_

_'... Well, apart from sex. Hot, amazing, sweaty sex— WHO CARES. Who the hell cares. Screw him, I'll find someone hotter than that... Okay, wow he's hot—But there's like eight billion people in this world, I'll find someone sexier and nicer and talented than him. Yup.'_

And with that, Kaito whipped back around and strolled upstairs to his hotel room. He swiped in his card and with an affirmative beep, he was enabled access. It was still exactly how he left it; bed made, curtains drawn, his luggage stowed away neatly beneath his bed and some books on the table for pleasure reading.

Kaito stripped himself of everything except for his boxers and he curled up and into his sheets, letting his head relax comfortingly on his pillow. His eyes fluttered shut, and cursorily, he found himself falling into sleep. Forgetting the fact that he was married, forgetting the fact that he had sex, forgetting the fact that his life would probably never be the same, and oblivious to the last revelation of a crazy Vegas night that he bought a house under his and Gakupo's name, Kaito was quickly lulled into a deep sleep to aid his hangover.

* * *

The rest of the trip had been much more fun, on both sides. Although the thought that the two were married still invaded their minds, it now didn't occupy much thought as it did before and they were finally enabling to sink it in.

They'd used up their time in the amazing resort wisely; for Kaito's part, swimming in one of the luxury beaches and later on, relax with his crew while happily enjoying his ice cream and laughing at a _totally_-tanned Akaito complaining about the fact that even if Kaito was so pale, no dark spot seemed to land on him. They were _semi_-monozygotic twins, making the fact even more hilarious that Akaito obviously didn't inherit that wonderful perk.

For Gakupo, he'd taken complete pleasure in going to modern-rich parties found at the very top floor of gigantic towers, dancing, partying, drinking like there was no tomorrow (and despite his little screw-up he'd encountered two weeks ago, he hadn't subconsciously become a polyamorist.. Surprisingly enough.) and flirting on odds and ends. And at day times, he would take walks in the crevices of deep forests, go to bird parks and try to reserve his laughter as Kyo would be attacked viciously by a cockatoo—the poor guy never did well with birds—, visit local zoos, aquariums and so on and so forth.

Now it was the last day of the trip and coincidentally enough, both parties would be leaving at the same day.

"Do we have to go back?" Merli whined like a child, lips perking into a frown as she stated at Meiko hopefully. "This is way better than that dingy, stupid apartment building we all call home... Why can't I live here!?"

Meiko laughed, leaning an elbow on Merli's head as she began to pull out her phone and text. "Sorry lovey, you can't," she shook her head, fingers rapidly working against the keys. "It wouldn't be fair otherwise."

"B-but Meeeeikooooooo!"

"Shh, shh, Merli dear. Shh." Meiko laughed, shushing the poor girl down. Yohio rolled his eyes, leant over Akaito and decided that distracting the boy from an online Pokémon battle would be a good idea; until he got hit in the face hard by the man's console.

"Piss off, Yohio," Akaito grumbled, stabbing Yohio's hand as hard as he could with his stylus. He got a pleasing reaction as the blond doubled over in pain, gripping his hand tightly.

"... I don't care what you say, Mei," Merli huffed. "I will live here one day! I will!"

"... Some of us might," Meiko chuckled, hinting on Kaito. "Some of us."

Merli rolled her eyes with a low grumble and glanced over at Meiko's shoulder, wondering who she was texting.

_« yeah, ive already hired a separate taxi car for them two and us, hahaha. »_

_« Haha, that's fantastic. They don't know about the house, do they? »_

_« nuh they don't, don't suspect a thing at all. just when kaito was going to relax, the poor guy. »_

Meiko's phone instantly jolted away from Merli's eyes, a slight blush creeping to her cheeks. Merli on the other hand giggled knowingly.

"What's this with _Ka-i-to-?_~" she crooned with a small smirk. "And who's this guy you're talking to, huuuuh?~"

"Shut up Merli." Meiko only grunted, half-embarrassed.

"Meeeeeikooooo~"

"..."

"Meiko. Meiko. Meiko. Meiko."

"I-it's no one—"

"Meeeiiiiiiiiiiiiiiikoooooooo!"

"Merli, shut up—"

"I'll buy you alcohol if you tell me."

"...

"Rea—"

_« PING! »_

Luckily, Meiko was saved from the grips of Merli's negotiates and flipped open her phone, purposefully tilting away from the woman. She pulled up her Messages app, taking pleasure in reading the text.

_« Taxi's coming out now. Gakupo's with me outside. Get out now with Kaito, don't tell anyone where we're going. »_

Swift,y, Meiko stood up and grabbed her luggage, snatching a relaxed Kaito playing some mobile game. "Get your luggage." She ordered. "Now, now, now!— Don't come with us you guys, it's only me and Kaito! Stay here, we'll be back— _Geddout_ Kaito! Now!"

Noting the somewhat excitement in Meiko's voice, without a question, Kaito grabbed his bags, shoved his phone in his pocket and dashed out of the hotel with Meiko in front of him. She ran up to the parked yellow taxi, longer than most taxis but not any taller. Kaito could briefly see some figures, one in the passenger seat and another in the back seats, but couldn't distinguish who exactly. Meiko opened the door forcefully, grabbed his luggage and forced Kaito right in, letting him stumble inside the car haphazardly.

Meiko opened the carboot and crammed all her and Kaito's luggage in. A large smirk began to part her lips as she slammed the carboot's door down and she let herself in the taxi, going behind Kaito's seat. She laid down on the row of seats which she had to herself, simply relaxing.

Kaito winced, rubbing his arms. Now that hurt... "Meiko, what the fuck!? Where's Merli!? Where's Akaito!? Where's Yohio!? Why are we leaving them behi—"

"... _You_."

Kaito blinked at the new arrival of the voice and turned around, pupils blowing as he realised who he just encountered. His husband.

Great way to heighten Kaito's confusion as to what was going on. His lips gaped up and down like a fish, looking at Gakupo, then at Meiko, then at Gakupo, then at Meiko, then at Gakupo and—"

"_W'sup_, Kaito!"

Kaito whipped around, only to see the face of a vaguely familiar pink-haired man. "What—!"

"Yuuma, why are we here?" Gakupo asked calmly, his voice levelling as he closed his eyes in a sort of irritated way. "_Why_?"

"Meiko?" Kaito turned around, staring at Meiko confusedly. "... What's going on?"

"I'll leave it to Meiko to tell~" Yuuma only chimed.

"Kaito, love, y'know how you got married with Gakupo?" Meiko inquired. "Well, you know, not did you guys only get married... But — you — two— bought — a — house."

"... Wh... wh..."

"WHAT!?"

**xxx**

Around twenty minutes later and a bit, the four had paid for their taxi fare and were walking down the bustling cities of Carson. Cars raved nonstop against the roads, chatter—more than Vegas, surprisingly—was very thick in the air and fabulous boutiques, shops and restaurants were at every corner.

With every step towards the golden district of housings the foursome took, the more foreboding had weighted on Kaito and Gakupo. Although the houses were very unique from each other, all of them had three things in common; very sexy, very posh and very expensive. They were big and short, narrow and tall, big and tall and narrow and small too, and none of them failed to impress the four as Meiko moaned in awestruck at every glance, Yuuma cursed in amazement, Kaito's fingers tensed even more and Gakupo was muttering an erratic line of '_shitshitshitshitshitohshitshitohfucknodon'tdothiswhywhywhy_'.

Finally, after a lot of steps, Yuuma had shoved his phone back in his jean pocket. (Kaito presumed he had the address in his phone; how and why, one would ever know.) The four stopped at a house found at the ends of the street, remarkably sleek and bearing the same traits as all the other houses had. It was tall and wide with spotless glass windows that remained uncurtained, a lovely front garden and large double doors, the colour of deep mocha with gold, brass handles to cream it off. Long stems of delphinium, hydrangea, saffron crocus' and other posh flowers sprouted from the earth, tall and astounding. Fully-matured, spontaneous blossom trees brushed against the wooden fencings, making the scenery all too lovely.

And to top it all off, a billboard was planted firmly in the dirt, with a large sticker slapped over it, reading _SOLD_ in bold, embossed letters.

The four were left in silence. Yes, they were expecting a particularly fancy house, but this was way out of their expectation; to the point where they didn't know to be quite pleased or to be terrified out of their wits.

But the only thing one could say right now were the words spoken by Gakupo;

...

"... We are so screwed."

* * *

**End notes**: And with that, that takes the end of Chapter 2! Sorry nothing much happened here ;w; Chapter 3 will be lots of great fun.

Ooh yeah, other than Gakupo/Kaito and the side-pairing of be Yuuma/Meiko, please feel free to request some other side pairings you wanna see. Yuri, yaoi, het, love triangles (even if it involves Yuuma/Meiko or Gakupo/Kaito— Actually... That'd be pretty interesting... Hmm...); hell, even polyamorous relationships. Shoot me with some. owo

ALSO ALSO ALSO: I know it's practically impossible to buy a house while you're drunk. I know. But writing. Fantasies. Dreams. Nothing is real.

Yeaaah.

So with that, I'll end the chapter here and shut up. Bye bye ~

_- V. N. T._


	3. Chapter 3: clumsy fall-guy

**Notes**: Hey, I'm updating fast~ Technically, I shouldn't be updating with a concert in a few hours... But who cares. :D  
**Chapters**: 3/24

* * *

**Chapter Three: **clumsy fall-guy

The support they received from their friends were remarkably startling.

It all began one dreary morning at Kaito's olde-worlde apartment, where the young man was found in his bed, back propped up against the wooden headboard, _Sony Vaio _in his lap and his brittle fingers wrapped around a warm mug of coffee. It had been a week since finding out that he had bought a house with Gakupo, and everything was going all swimmingly.

His morning had gone off relatively well despite the grey skies looking overhead and the light rain trickling on his windowpanes. The bed next to his, Yohio's, was bare, although for once, it was kept tidy with blankets pulled over the pillows and none of the plethora of cushions that the blond had littered the ground. (Honestly, Kaito would never understand his obsession with them) Being somewhat of a clean-freak, Kaito always had an impulse to make Yohio's bed for him before he could leave the place - or even the room.

Kaito hummed into his coffee contently and pulled up his _Facebook _page, expecting nothing out of the ordinary until he saw his last post; which was not the photo he'd snapped of his hotel room a few days back when he was in Vegas. In fact, it wasn't even a photo; it was a status update.

Kaito's eyes narrowed.

'_Kaito Shion _changed his relationship status to: Married to _Gakupo Kamui.'_

Married to Gakupo Kamui.

_Married _to Gakupo Kamui.

_Married _to _Gakupo Kamui._

"_Meiko_!" Kaito spluttered into his coffee and immediately scrambled out of the room, looking an outright mess with his hair tousled and panda eyes gracing the outlines of his lower eyelid.

A quiver clipped the end of his shout however, as he saw who was in the living room, surrounding the tattered aqua couch; his small group of friends who accompanied him to his trip to Las Vegas, Yuuma, three strangers he couldn't quite exactly place their names of and..

_Gakupo._

_"_What the hell_ is going on?"_

**xxx**

And that was how, the start of that shocking Monday morning (which in Kaito's opinion, totally ruined his perfectly planned day) revelation to a more-or-less relaxed Friday, when Kaito finally thought he'd finally recovered from his mighty shock of being married _and _buying a house, was how he was practically kicked out of his own aparment - when he was the freaking owner of it, mind you - and forced into the house he'd bought.

He decided to sell it by the following week when he had his life back on track, but that didn't seem to be the case as soon as the nine entered their house that Monday morning, they began making phone calls and arrangements.

The next Monday, everything was going on very swimmingly indeed and the house was up to its final stages of embellishment. Yuuma and Yohio had done a fantastic job of painting every wall of the house, being very particular and thoroguh on what colour systems would match and what would not, Merli and Galaco seemed to be having a total blast on picking out new furniture and decorations for Yohio and Yuuma to use, comfortable between the walls of _IKEA,_Meiko and Lily, who were more than keen to be moving all of Kaito and Gakupo's junk from moving truck to back and helping the girls with carrying the heavy furniture they purchased and Akaito and Kyo, who were both very talented in the arts of handiwork were in charge of assembling the new furniture together, multitasking between the garden work as well. And then Gakupo and Kaito, who even though surprisingly helped quite a lot with everyone else, still didn't have a proper conversation or had even exchanged a few words... And their group of friends were very determined to change that, especially since the fact that all they'd been exchanging was rude gestures and nasty glares.

"_Juuuuuust _a _liiiiiitle _more to the right," instructed Galaco carefully, tilting her head in varying angles as Yohio and Gakupo struggled to position the couch at the exact place. "Good, good, a little forward and... _there_!"

With two simultaenous groans, the two dropped the plush white couch onto the red carpet and promptly fell atop of it. Nine had quickly melted into eighteen and the house had been completed. It looked absolutely gorgeous from door to window and it was even more beautiful than the exterior of the house, and that, in itself, truly _was _saying something,

The living room, kitchen and dining table's walls were painted an almost romanticdeep red with white, expertly-chosen furniture. On the mahogany dining table, a flourished red table-blanket spread atop and in the heart of it, a lovely narrow vase with a small corsage of fresh white carnations. Around that, four long, slender candles circled the foliage, remaining unlit for the time being.

Next to the living room were two white pillars connecting from the floor to the ceiling that separated the couches and the TV and a large, polished grand piano that belonged to Gakupo. An assortment of guitars - classical, acoustic and electric namely - were displayed on the walls, flourishing a marvellous touch.

All the cupboards and the fridge in the kitchen were already filled with snacks and what not, and a glass case sitting next to the fridge displayed all of Kaito and Gakupo's achievements; a recent picture of a happy, smiling Kaito on the day of his graduation (looking like he was close to tears), the multiple trophies Gakupo had for constantly nabbing first place in kendo tournaments and much to the two's irritation, their marriage contract with their wonky signatures, sealed up in a picture frame. And to their dismay, the glass case remained locked, the key held by a chain that pressed into Kyo's chest.

Every room on the second floor had been just as wonderful; the study which walls had ben beautifully fitted in purple Victorian wallpaper and a sleek black couch sat next to a bookshelf filled with a plethora of books, having a particularly broad spectrum on genres and age groups. The bathroom looked very fitting indeed with walls sea blue and sea-shells and practically anything sea-related adorned the walls and cupboards. Then the guest room, painted a warm orange with baby pink floral bedsheets and finally, the master bedroom... In which was purposefully left locked, leaving Gakupo and Kaito very curious about the details of that room.

"_Haaaah," _sighed Lily and flopped on the single couch, arms and legs akimbo over the upholstered furniture. "I can't believe we actually, like, finished the house!"

"It surely does feel accomplishing though," Kyo pointed out, sitting Indian-style in front of the couch. "Especially since we're doing it for free, eh?"

"I can't tell if that's some guilt-trip or you actually mean it," admitted Gakupo, scooching over to make room for Merli as she came padding down the stairs, taking her place between Yohio and Gakupo. "Thanks though, guys. We'll pay you back somehow."

"Speak for yourself," snorted Kaito and promptly avoided Gakupo's glare.

"Don't thank us now, _Gaku_~" chirped Yuuma with an innocent smile perking his lips, giving a knowing glance to everyone else in the room and then saving a special _smirk _for Kaito. "You can take us later - we've an even better surprise."

"What d'you mean?" inquired Kaito curiously (in a seemingly innocent manner), vaguely flummoxed about what Yuuma had insinuated.

Yuuma only shrugged nonchalantly with a hum and leant backwards in his seat. "Who knows~" he sang, "but sorry, Kaito, _dear, _I really only think Gakupo will be enjoying this gift we have in store for him..."

"Wow. So nice."

"We know," Yuuma chuckled._  
_

"... Seriously. What is going on?" Gakupo ejaculated, a crease forming in the middle of his forehead.

"You'll see," Yuuma grinned. "You'll see."

"Who's up for Chinese?" Akaito suddenly asked, standing up from his seat as he reluctantly tore his eyes away from the TV, showing an intense footy match. For some reason, Kaito thought that this was kind of, well, _orchestrated_, since Akaito barely had any interest in take-out, especially when there was the option of staying home and barracking for his favourite team.

"Me," chorused Yohio and Kyo, both standing up.

"What about you, Gakupo?"

Huh. Even weirder; Akaito barely asked someone in specific for them to come... Something definitely was odd, Kaito thought, and it's probably to do with the _gift _they had in mind for Gakupo.

Either way, Gakupo nodded neutrually, muttering a, "yeah, I'm kinda hungry anyway..."

"Uhm, how about me?" tested Kaito. "Can I go too?"

"You can't!" Akaito immediately protested, "you hate Chinese!"

"What...? No I don'-"

"Yes you do and that's final!" the redhead insisted fervently. Kaito looked slightly taken back by Akaito's forced decisions but decided not to press on it. Something _definitely _was going on.

"How about you girls?" Akaito continued on as if nothing happened, taking a quick glance at everyone else in the living room. "Oh, and you too, _Yuuka._"

Yuuma glared at Akaito, and growled through gritted teeth, "It's _Yuuma_. And no, I won't be going."

"Me neither."

"Nope."

"Nah."

"Ew."

Akaito nodded, flipping Yuuma the finger for a brief moment before he lead the three to the doorway, slipping on his shoes and then, quickly left the house with a quiet '_click_' of the door.

As soon as the door shut, everyone's eyes focused on Kaito's. It was almost as if everyone was smirking, a dangerous glint in their eyes.

"Let's begin."

* * *

"HAH!?"

Kaito stumbled on top of the bed, crinkling the sheets as he was haphazardly pushed into the guest room. The door behind him clicked and he heard something heavy - most likely a chair - being pushed up against it. He scrambled to the door and knocked on it hard, yelling, _demanding _for someone to anser. Although no sound, and as Kaito pressed his ear against the bit of wood, heard footsteps retract away from the door. He groaned and flopped on the bed, staring up at the ceiling.

_'Just what type of gift is this...?'_

Yuuma smirked as he pushed the chair against the door and headed further down the hall, humming a small ditty to himself. He peered in Kaito and Gakupo's bedroom, which for the first time that night, remained locked. All the girls were scavenging in the closet, grabbing all of Kaito's clothes and piling as much as they could in their hands.

He entered the spacious room and helped them out, taking a small load out of everyone's piles. When Meiko and Merli had confirmed that this was all of Kaito's clothes, Lily, Galaco and Yuuma all grinned impishly and exited out of the room, heading downstairs.

With a bit of struggle, Meiko managed to open the sliding door that walled the back garden and pool, quickly entering it. Everyone stood by the filled pool (respective of Kyo), still grinnning those Chesire Cat grins that almost _glinted _in the dark.

**xxx**

"LET ME OUT!"

"Keep `em coming," prompted Yuuma casually, dumping more of Kaito's clothes into the pool. A splash emitted, spattering on his jeans although he didn't seem to mind as he picked up another load of clothes from the poolside and dropped it pronto.

Despite the yell that had amplified through the house just seconds ago, none them seemed to be intent on obeying Kaito's shrill demands. There still seemed to be a lot of clothes to be dumped, but the piles seemed to be disappearing quicker and quicker as the girls and Yuuma worked at drenching all of Kaito's garments.

"What about Gakupo's clothes?" asked Merli curiously, throwing the pile of clothes in her hand one by one.

"We hid them," Lily explained promptly. "We already _knew _Kaito'd wear Gakupo's clothes insteand, and Gakupo'd get seriously pissed if we drenched them... So we hid them in the basement."

"Ah," Merli nodded. "Clever."

"Kaito has some seriously nice clothes though," Galaco mumbled with a grimace, picking up a royal purple flannel. "Is it really okay to wet them all?"

"Yeah, of course," Meiko shrugged. "All he wears are really only hoodies and jeans. He won't be missing `em."

"Well," Galaco glanced at the top one more time before she shrugged, throwing it in the pool. "Who cares."

...

Five minutes or so later, all of Kaito's clothes had been dumped into the pool, sinking to the very bottom. All his belts, scarves, jeans, pants, shirts, singlets, coats, jackets, jumpers... _Everything. _The girls and Yuuma looked very proud on their efforts.

Yuuma folded his arms, smiling smugly at the sea of clothes that were clearly seen on the bottom of the pool. "Splendid," he said in a approving tone. "Splendid, splendid, _splendid_. Everything's going according to plan."

"They're coming back in thirty minutes," Lily notified as she received a text from Kyo. "Better be ready by then."

"Yeeeeees," the pink-haired man dragged out. "You guys should get going though. Leave everything to me."

All the girls saluted and nodded, skipping off outside of the house. Meiko stood on her tiptoes and gave her boyfriend a brief kiss on the corners of Yuuma's lips before she herself followed the girls out. Yuuma grinned.

Now the second half of the plan would be pretty easy.

With a yawn, Yuuma left the poolside and headed upstairs and quickly went in, locked it in from the inside and shut it close from the outside. He then headed to the next door where the guest room was and removed the chair from the doorknob and quietly opened the door, saving a grin for Kaito, who laid exhausted on the bed, totalled out.

As soon as the door opened, Kaito perked out much like an excited puppy and groaned in relief as his hopes of the door being opened were confirmed. "Y-you're letting me out?" he asked, hoping he hadn't sound _too _eager. "_Really?_"

"Yep," Yuuma grinned. "C'mere, boy."

Despite Yuuma treating him as if he was a dog, Kaito scrambled out of the bed, blissfully forgetting about the 'gift' they had for Gakupo. He followed Yuuma out, somehow feeling inclined that this was really the only thing he could do to keep himself interested. Heck, anything was better than staying in that stupid guest room.

Yuuma led him back outside, just outside the pool and lopped an arm around Kaito's shoulder, all chummy like. Kaito raised an eyebrow and blinked, tilting his head up at Yuuma.

"What are you doing...?"

The pink-haired man only shrugged with a vague hum. "It's a nice night, isn't it?"

"Yeah, if you can call a fucking burning night being nice," Kaito mumbled sarcastically, obviously thinking otherwise. "It's better than winter nights though. Fricken freezing."

"Well, everyone's tastes are different," Yuuma reasoned out and sat down on the edge of the pool, dipping his feet in the semi-warm water. "Come sit."

"You've got a point there," Kaito agreed and scooted over, bending down and sitting next to Yuuma. He stared up at the constellation of stars and the half-moon and sighed. "This summer's been crazy."

"You don't say," Yuuma laughed. "I think it'll turn out to be okay at the end though. Really."

"Y'think so?" Kaito raised an eyebrow sceptically. "I don't like Gakupo. Gakupo obviously doesn't like me. I don't think our feelings will change any time soon."

"Gakupo's a good guy," Yuuma mumbled, shaking his head. "He'll like you soon enough. It's surprisingly not that hard."

"You sure about that?"

"_Yeah_," Yuuma punctuated with a slight frown. "You just have to... get under his skin. If myself, Lily, Galaco and Kyo did it, you can too."

"Hm? So how did _you_ get him to warm up to _you_?" Kaito asked curiously.

"Kendo tournaments," Yuuma admitted with a sheepish chuckle. "We were versing each other and suddenly he got all dirty and ended up breaking my leg. It was a pretty intense match."

"Ouch."

"So I had to go to the hospital and a few days later, he came and visited me. He looked seriously awkward and apologised. Then we had some conversation and I found out we had a lot in common, so it really wasn't that hard. We were good friends after that, even though the places we're taught at have some serious rivalry."

"I see..." Kaito nodded. "That's a pretty... neat way to meet."

"I suppose," Yuuma grinned widely. "As for Lily, she met Gakupo through me. Didn't like the guy at first. Thought he was overly serious and didn't know how to take a joke. We were at a party and Lily had a little too much, and played this prank on Gakupo. Then for the whole week, Lily and Gakupo were up at each other's necks with immature pranks before they became really good friends."

"As for Galaco and Kyo...?"

"Galaco's Gakupo's sister," Yuuma explained. "And Kyo was Gakupo's college roommate."

"Huh." Kaito blinked. "It really isn't that hard...?"

"Nah," Yuuma confirmed. "What about you and Meiko, Yohio and Merli?"

"Meiko was the new annoying neighbourhood kid when I was five," Kaito told. "She was six. She loved to get on my nerves and drag Akaito and I wherever she went. I remember one time, she somehow managed to sneak into our house at three in the fricken morning, and wake me up, just to show me a huge worm she'd caught. She was stupid... She still is."

"Seriously?" Yuuma blinked, raising an eyebrow. "That's kinda adorable."

"Of course it's adorable, she's your girlfriend," Kaito spat shortly before continuing. "I met Yohio when I was on holiday to Australia. I think I was seventeen or something. He also came from Nevada and went to Australia to visit his family. I sat next to him on the plane, and we got all talking. In the end, he toured me around Melbourne and hung out with me in the city. Exchanged numbers and bam.

"And for Merli... Well, for our birthday, Akaito had been bugging me about getting his first tattoo, so I paid for it as a surprise. Merli was the tattoo artist, started gushing about how she always wanted to meet identical twins."

"So Meiko was the annoying neighbourhood kid, Yohio was your Australian tour guide and Merli was some identical-twin-fanatic tattoo artist?"

"_Pre_-tty much," Kaito answered with a grin. He stared deep in the pool after a silence had ensued and furrowed both his eyebrows as he noticed a blanket of... things at the very bottom.

_'Wait a second...' _

...

"ARE THOSE MY CLO-"

_Splash._

**xxx**

"This was all part of the plan, wasn't it!? Drenching all my clothes and then pushing me in the pool!? Huh!?"

"Yup."

"What the _fuck_, dude!? _Where are Gakupo's clothes!?_"

"Hid them in the basement."

"Get them for me!"

"I can't."

"_Whythehellnot!?"  
_

"It's locked."

"THEN UNLOCK IT!"

"I can't."

"_Why!?"_

"Lily has the key."

"And where is she now?!"

"Driving home."

"FUCK YOU!"

An angry, otherwise humiliated Kaito stood in the living room, totally stripped of any clothes and drenched from head to toe. His face was flushed a terra cotta red, his eyebrows twitching and his body shaking like hell. A wave of goosebumps flooded his skin and he looked anything but amused now as he folded his arms tightly against his chest, glaring hard at the smirking pink-haired man.

Right after noticing his clothes in the pool, Yuuma had pushed him in and Kaito had no choice but to walk around naked since wearing wet clothes weren't an exactly delightful thing. Neither was walking around naked, as a matter of fact, but Kaito supposed that was the better option of the two.

"You shouldn't be so pissed, Kaito love~" Yuuma laughed. "We're all guys here."

"You _shut up!_" Kaito groaned. "What about towels? Blankets? _Dowehaveanyofthemhere_!?"

"All the towels are in the wash, and as for the blankets... Nah."

"You dick!"

"I know, I know~" Yuuma chimed in an annoyingly cheerful tone, before purposefully letting his eyes wander to the clock. "Ooh, Gakupo's going to be home any minute now~"

"What about Yohio and Kyo and Akaito!?"

"They're dropping Gakupo off only." Yuuma smirked. "And as for me... I should be leaving, too."

"DON'T YOU DARE LEAVE ME!"

"Sorry Kaito love, but Meiko really is the only one for me," Yuuma's smirk grew wider, eyes trailing up and down Kaito's bare body. "It's really very a shame. I'd totally take you if I didn't have Meiko and you didn't have Gakupo."

"_I didn't mean it in that way, you idiot__!_"

"I was _only_ joking, _mon petite cher_," the pink-haired man laughed, but his tone from previously seemed anything but. From the corner of his eyes, he noticed the headlights of Kyo's car come into view; Kaito still didn't seem to notice. Good.

"What kind of cruel gift is THIS!?"

"It's a wonderful gift, Kaito love," Yuuma disagreed. "Ah well, I did point out that Gakupo'd be the only one enjoying this _gift._"

"H-huh!?"

"Shh, Kaito dea–"

"The doorbell rang.

Another smirk placed Yuuma's lips and he turned his head around to face a terrified Kaito, whose pupils were blown, lips were quivering and was trembling more than ever. Yuuma swaggered over to the hall and settled his hand on the golden doorknob, swinging the door wide open, changing his smirk into a friendly grin as he greeted the man home.

"Welcome home, Gakupo!"

* * *

**End notes: **Cliffhanger. Oooh. I'm really not proud of this chapter, but ah well... I do like now I portrayed Yuuma though... I don't know. I'm too lazy to look at this properly, so the end may seem a little rushed...

Review please?


	4. Chapter 4: SLiDP

**Notes:** I think I'll reply to reviews through chapters. Seems easier that way. Sorry this is late, I was working on and off on this fanfic, so yeah...  
Chapter 5 will come really soon, promise.  
Also, my second piercing closed up. I'm trying to accumulate more money to repierce it, I didn't realise how much I liked it... :C  
******Mimoru: **Thank you! Haha, I'm glad I make people laugh. C:  
**Maelstromais:** (rad username btw, holy frick) ASDFGHJKL; LET ME HUG YOU ; ; Thanks! Thanks for pointing out the mistake – I fixed it. C: Much love.  
**Crimbly**: Oh my, thank you ;u; That's really touching to hear. My idols are namely Anna Green (LiveJournal) and TrickorPete (AO3) – they both write band fanfiction, oops...  
**Chapters: **4/24

* * *

**Chapter Four: **Screwing Lightbulbs in Dark Places

It was only until Yuuma had skipped out of the household, did Kaito finally learn to appreciate the indistinct noises the household drew out; the ceaseless hum of the electrical heater, the constant ticking of the clock and the wooden floorboards creaking against his feet. Then when the silence between himself and Gakupo had become too deafening for Kaito to bear, the crickets chirping and the soft sound of the waves splashing against the sand from the beach next to them joined the symphony.

This was one of the most humiliating things that he had to go through, Kaito realised. Being naked in front of a stranger he barely knew (and provided, had quite a light hatred for) and inaccessible to any clothes made him feel...

… Stupid, really.

And it wasn't a feeling he particularly enjoyed.

"If this is some awful attempt to try and seduce me, you're failing ridiculously at it."

Almost immediately, Kaito's head snapped up and his eyes reflection had immediately turned into a glare, directed straight into Gakupo's eyes. Gakupo only stared back passively, still wearing that blank face Kaito found oh-so-horribly irritating_._

"Like hell I'd ever seduce you," Kaito spat back defensively. "Did you not clearly see Yuuma _frolic__ out of the house for god's sake? _Why, could you explain to me, would you think this would be my idea to just prance around naked?"

"You proposed to me while Yuuma was around," Gakupo pointed out flatly. "Wasn't his idea."

"I was _drunk _for God's sake!" Kaito shrieked. "My _god, I haven't even touched a beer since!_"

Gakupo was silent for a while. He hesitated, about to say something before he promptly closed his mouth and walked past Kaito and took a seat in the living room. He groped around for the TV remote next to him and turned it on, relaxing wholly as an episode of Friends was airing.

Kaito was about to complain, glaring at the back of Gakupo's head before he only rolled his eyes, muttering an insult – something amongst the lines of 'faceache' – and joined Gakupo in the living room, sitting next to the fireplace to conserve some warmth.

And only then did he realise how freaking _cold _he was.

"Oi. Gimme your jacket."

"Huh?"

"I _said_, give me your jacket. I'm cold."

"Like hell."

"Hurry up." Clearly, Kaito wasn't taking no for an answer.

"No."

"Give."

"It's Armani."

"And my parents own a house twice this size and we can easily give you a better one. Now _give_."

"So? I'm not giving it to you."

Kaito twitched in vague annoyance before grumbling in defeat, his back thumping against the couch's arm. Gakupo only then noticed how childish Kaito was and couldn't help but admit – only to himself – that it was kind of...

Cute, really.

Kaito's arms folded against his chest, puffing his right cheek out indignantly as he watched – actually, more like glared – at the TV.

Let time flow.

**xxx**

Two hours or so passed and by this time, Kaito was _freezing _cold. As the night bore deeper, the temperatures dropped colder and even if the blue-haired man had made a point to stick close to the heater, it wasn't doing him any justice. And he stopped trying with Gakupo...

… Twenty eight minutes and nine seconds ago.

Exactly.

Gakupo was now in the process of being entertained by a long bout of martial arts movies that were running on the SBS channel. His posture had drastically slackened and he now remained an akimbo, sinewy line that reclined lazily on the couch. Damn, he had it _tough._

"I hate you."

"Again, if you're trying to seduce me, it's not working~" Gakupo almost sang in a tantalising manner.

"How the hell did 'I hate you' become some sort of attempt at seduction?!" Kaito nearly shrieked.

"Reverse-psychology," Gakupo answered plainly, as if it was the most obvious thing ever. "Seriously though, if you're cold, put on some clothes for god's sake."

"They. Were. Dumped. In. The. Pool." Kaito answered through gritted teeth. "And your clothes are locked away in the basement too, and they've locked the bedroom door so I can't exactly prance around with a blanket around me."

"Towels?"

"In the wash."

"God." That almost sounded like a laugh! "This is hopeless."

Kaito sighed quietly, not bothering to respond; he was too... fatigued by the cold and plain exhaustion (not from having to bear with being naked – the whole day in itself) to really even care about how hilariously naked he was. Not only that, but he was awfully tired too... And he couldn't find himself nodding off, even if he just then transferred himself towards the singular couch and attempted to preserve heat between himself and the couch.

"Are you about to sleep?" Gakupo asked quietly.

Kaito hesitated before he gave his answer. "... Trying to." He admitted.

There was a pregnant pause and from the corner of his eye, Gakupo seemed to be shifting a little back. He turned off the TV, punctuating the silence again before he undid his jacket and folded it neatly, setting it against the coffee table. He loosened his jeans; undid the belt and let it fall to the floor, unbuttoned it and unzipped it halfway and undid the top button of his shirt, before finally, he had relaxed once again. "Come here," he finally told after a while.

"What?"

"Just do it."

Kaito was reluctant before hesitantly, he stood up and wandered over to Gakupo's side. "What's thi- _Owowowowow_!"

Kaito was promptly dragged down to the couch and immediately, he started squirming underneath Gakupo's grip. "What are you doing!?"

"I'm not letting you wear my jacket, but I don't mind being forced to help you keep warm."

"_Forced!? _I never forced you!"

"... Pretty sure you did. It's getting kind of annoying and honestly, a little pitying, so this is possibly the best way to shut you up."

"I refuse."

"Okay. Get off and die of hypothermia."

Kaito hesitated. It was already pretty warm where Gakupo was. A frown perked his lips before he sighed and rolled his eyes, inching closer to Gakupo. "Fine..."

"Good. Now go to sleep."

And perhaps then, was the moment of calm between the two of them. It looked awfully odd, yes, a fully clothed man and a completely bare one, but honestly, given that the situation was explained, it was actually kind of... cute. With the fireplace forming shadow nymphs that flickered constantly on the walls and the very indistinct sound of trains whirring in the distance, provided they didn't have cold blood against each other, this would be memorable.

"You owe me for this," Gakupo muttered under his breath, pulling Kaito closer to him and readjusting his arm's grip on his waist.

"Of course," Kaito replied with a light snort.

"Of course."

* * *

"Aw. Young love."

"Lily, you're the youngest out of all of us."

"Shshshshsh. Shut up."

"It's kind of weird though, seeing my brother getting cosy and just... _Ew._"

"You've seen worse, Akaito."

"More like better..."

"Your girlfriend's right next to you, you do realise, Yuuma?"

"I kinda wanna take a photo, but I'm scared Gakupo will break my arm."

"Do it."

"Oh my god, I really _do _need better friends..."

That morning, Yohio, Lily, Yuuma, Meiko, Kyo, Merli, Galaco and Akaito had successfully managed to break in the house and were immediately greeted by a lovely surprise reclining on the couch. Over the night, the proximity between Gakupo and Kaito's closeness had gone through the roof and to anyone, it would look like they were an actual item; Kaito's head snug underneath Gakupo's chin, Gakupo's arms wrapped around Kaito's waist – really the carbon copy of a happy couple.

"Should we... wake them up?" Galaco asked hesitantly, biting her lower lip.

"Yeah... Only you do it."

"Wha- why!?"

"You're his little sister," Lily pointed out. "Darling little sister. He can't hurt you – even if he does, you can fight back. You're just as strong as him."

Galaco huffed. "Fine..." And with that, the brunette-blonde gently shook Gakupo's shoulder, nudging it back and forth.

"Heeeeey, Gakupo. Wake up."

…

"Gakuuu," she tried again, nudging him with a little more robust. "Wake uuuup."

"Mmnh..."

"Gakupo, hurry up already – gotta wake up. It's nine twenty three, we're going to this nice festival, so go ahead and get changed." Galaco instructed – in this case, she did feel like the older sister. When all she got, once again, was a light grumble, Galaco went in for the kill and briefly poked Gakupo's neck.

Instantly, Gakupo scrambled up, his hand flying to his neck – he was awfully sensitive there. In the process, Kaito had promptly fell off the couch and landed on the mat with a soft 'thud'.

"What in the hell.."

"Good morning, bro," Galaco greeted blithely. "Nice to see you're up!"

"Sleep well?" Yuuma asked with a vague smirk. Meiko nudged his hip roughly.

"Shut up, it was a one-off thing..." Gakupo grumbled, standing up. He smoothened out his shirt, redid his jeans button and zip and his shirt. He blew his hair away from his face, tucking it behind his ear.

Amidst the chaos, Kyo had wandered over to Kaito and bended down, offering a pile neatly folded clothes. "I'm the only one out of the gang who's not perverted," Kyo pointed out with a light snicker. "Uh, these are my clothes. It'll last a week or something. It's going to take a bit for me to help clean and dry your clothes since no one else is volunteering, so for the time being, just wear these. I'm only a bit shorter than you, but I'm pretty sure this will fit."

Kaito blinked before a smile parted his lips and he nodded, taking the clothes. "Thanks, dude," he said appreciatively and stood up. "You're great."

And while Gakupo was yelling at Yuuma, and had to deal with everyone else teasing him about last night, Kaito had obliviously gone upstairs to get changed.

It was certainly going to be an interesting year...

******xxx**

Once Kaito had gotten changed in Kyo's short-sleeved hoodie (he didn't really expect the brunet to like Rilakkuma, but whatever goes), Kyo's jeans and Kaito's one of many scarves wrapped around his neck, by that time, everyone was in the garage already, climbing into either Meiko or Lily's vans.

"Where are we even going?" Kaito asked pointedly, climbing into Meiko's, shotgun. Gakupo had crawled in not too long after, sitting in the very back row with Merli.

"Eh, just out on a festival," Meiko vaguely explained. "Y'know the Summer Fest? Yup, it's today. Thought it'd be fun, after doing all that work."

Honestly, all Kaito wanted to do that day was to stay in his room and rest, do whatever he could to make himself feel comfortable in his new home. He didn't say anything however and only sighed and shrugged, his head resting against the window as the van slowly began to fill in and now consisted of himself, Gakupo, Meiko, Merli and Yuuma; Gakupo and Yuuma had taken the back-seats and Merli had taken the right seat on the middle, the left being for all of her junk.

"Right-o, here we go," Meiko sighed and revved up her eight-year old van. A pleasing purr came at the start and as soon as Lily's van had vanished off with Akaito, Kyo, Yohio and Galaco, her van had went off, her old car-radio filling in the silence they didn't manage to fill with crappy teenybopper music.

"So what's this Summer Fest all about?" Yuuma asked curiously, finally breaking the silence.

"Ah, it's just like any other festival," Merli explained. "Except they really only allow it for sixteen years old and up, so there's not many bratty, whiny kids. There's game booths, some really awesome bands come and play, floating markets – Oh my gosh, _floating markets! _- and flea markets and... Woah.

"And if we're lucky, they sell things off on a discount," Merli continued. "Like, we're not supposed to, but we do. And it isn't even second-hand; say you wanted tickets to this rock band. Usually, they'd cost like, er, a hundred and something, but here, it's like thirty bucks. You just have to be really discreet about it, and ask the right people. It really could be anyone. It's kind of illegal, but that's really the only thing illegal at the Fest... Unless you want to get shit-headed. Um. That's another story."

"Huh..." Yuuma drawled. "That's, er, interesting – but I don't think I'd like to get high. Not my thing."

"Then what about glory holes?" Merli pressed on innocently.

"They have _glory holes _at a freaking Fest!?"

"I hope you're not going to be visiting then, Yuu-_ma_." Meiko grumbled through gritted teeth.

"O-o-o-of course not, love," Yuuma spluttered hurriedly. "N-nope, n-n-n-not at all.."

"Ooh yes, and I remember, I think like if you go far off, there's a Bunny Ranch..."

"MERLI!"

**xxx**

Twenty minutes or so, they had finally arrived at the entrance of the Summer Fest. They'd arrived three minutes after Lily's van had, so there wasn't much waiting around and Yohio had already conveniently bought the tickets for them.

Gakupo stepped out of the van with a sigh, slamming the door behind him as he jogged to join the rest of them. Yohio was handing tickets out to them, and had quickly passed the purple-haired man as soon as he joined them.

"Right, so, it'll be hard to travel in ten," Yohio began. "So we'll just split, in, um, twos. That'll be easier. Er, right – Meiko with Lily, I'll go with Yuuma, Akaito and Kyo, Merli and Galaco and naturally, Gakupo and Kaito. Yeah?"

Kaito sighed heavily. "Yeah..."

"Right, we'll meet back at the entrance at around, er, say, four?"

"Yuuuup."

"Alright, see you then. If anything important's gone up, then, er, just call someone trustworthy like Meiko or Kyo or something," Yohio shrugged and headed off towards the entrance with Yuuma. Soon, so did Lily and Meiko, then Merli and Galaco had jokingly linked arms and skipped away and Akaito had promptly jumped on Kyo's back, leaving him to lead themselves inside the Summer Fest and had left Kaito and Gakupo in an awkward silence.

Gakupo hesitated, scratching his arm awkwardly. They hadn't exchanged a word to each other since last night, and although it was remarkably comfortable – and that went for the two of them –, the aftermath had become ridiculously awkward.

"Right," Kaito sighed, and tugged Gakupo's collar. "How about this – we'll just... Er, forget last night ever happened and just go in and enjoy ourselves for the day. Um. Yeah."

Gakupo nodded, albeit a little stiffly, and joined Kaito's side, copying him as the blue-haired man had slid his ticket in the machine and was granted access.

As soon as they entered, a wave of blithe chatter, angry drum slamming and screams had erupted, smacking them hard in the face. Kaito was all too used to this, and from the corner of his eye, could already see a couple of teenagers get shit-headed. He was close to being like them, and once, he remembered he was practically _forced _to get drunk – he managed to get out of that one, thank the gods for his acting skill. Now, he didn't particularly care for those types of teenagers anymore and didn't even glance at them as one of them had punched him lazily on the back and had simply proceeded on.

"Um. So. Er. Where should we go first?" Gakupo asked, stiffly.

"I'll get you some bubble tea and stuff," Kaito answered, trying his best to sound relaxed when in reality, he was just as stiff and awkward. "Did you want regular bubble tea, or did you want a bubble crush or a bubble blend or... What flavour did you want, too? Oh, and size? And additional, er, what d'you call 'em, chunks?"

"Ah, um, I'll have a bubble crush – if they don't have eggplant, I'll have watermelon and grape blend, I think a medium is fine... And. Uh. Just those small pineapple cubes. Yup."

"I didn't know eggplant-flavoured drinks even existed," Kaito muttered to himeslf. "Er. Right, um, just don't wander off and – it's best you ignore those teens. Don't even try and talk to them, they. Um. _They're on drugs_. So, er, yeah. Speaks for itself, really."

Gakupo nodded uncomfortably and waited for Kaito as he wandered off to the bubble stall, placing their order. He shoved his hands in his pocket, and had a good look around at what his peripheral vision could take of the Summer Fest; the large stage definitely occupied most of his vision and he saw the big, big, _big _crowd surround them as the graphics behind those bandmembers changed constantly.

After a bit of staring at the four dudes on stage, Gakupo had moved on and, like Merli had said, a floating market with maybe fourteen boats had been seated by the river; a column of stalls had neatly decorated the paths, all selling a different array of things; from Asian confectionaries to cute women's clothing, from badly-made band merchandise to a whole. Freaking. Stall. Dedicated to _thigh-high socks_. Then the regular food stalls, and then the palm-reading, future-telling, love-o-meter crap.

"Here, they surprisingly have it, but they recommended it with a squeeze of watermelon juice, so, er, here," Kaito had arrived not long after with two cups of the bubble tea; he passed one to Gakupo and took a sip of his own.

"Yeah – how much do I owe you?"

Kaito paused, staring at Gakupo incredulously. "You're literally asking how much you owe me?"

"... Yes? That's what I just said, I do believe."

"Dude. _I'm _owing _you_. For. Uh. Last night, so yeah, everything's on me, unless you're the type of guy who likes to buy sex toys when in the presence of another."

"Well, that's kind of... a cheap way to owe me."

"I'm a rich pretty-boy, I can do what I want," Kaito said with a shrug. "Right, where to?"

"... Floating markets?"

"Yup, let's go."

**xxx**

"So, how are you coping?" Kyo suddenly asked, picking up a cute little Rilakkuma toy and observing them, lifting the cute bear above his hand. "You know, what, with everything going..."

"W'dyou mean?" Akaito asked, picking up the Badtz-Maru toy by its' ear.

"You sure as hell know what I mean," Kyo said with a roll of his eyes. "Your brother getting with Gakupo and you know, Meiko getting all cuddly with Yuuma..."

Akaito stiffened. "S-since _when _did I ever care about Meiko?" He asked, obviously a little flustered.

"It's kind of obvious," Kyo pointed out dully. "The fact that you're rude to Yuuma for whatever reason, mispronouncing his name on purpose, giving him the finger and all these childish moves. You were also kinda off the start of this week, you were kind of awkward with Meiko – Dude. Come on. Anyone could see it. I'm literally the only one who cares."

Akaito hesitated. "Okay, yeah, I liked Meiko for a while... So?"

Kyo fixed Akaito with a look. "_Liked? _Dude, we're not in highschool anymore. We're adults."

"Fine, I really loved Meiko, okay?" Akaito huffed irritably. "Happy? It's just — it's just hard to get all this through my head, my freaking _twin _getting a boyfriend this quickly – okay, they're not exactly lovers yet, but they _will be soon –_ and a childhood best friend getting a boyfriend too... Everything's kind of, slipping away. I feel like a twin without a sibling – that's just someone by itself. It... sucks. I really can't rely on them anymore, because, you see, we are – well, we were – really co-independent on each other. It's just who we are, we were friends for a good part of our lives. Then they get boyfriends and I'm the only one who's single, and...ugh..."

Akaito sighed quietly. "It's really not fair..."

"Nothing is fair, Akaito," Kyo spoke boldly. "It's just how it works. You can't really expect people to just come running up to you; if you really want someone to be in your life, go ahead and chase after them. Hey – you think Kaito is good-looking, right?"

"Yeah, of course," the red-head answered bitterly. "He got asked out all the time in highschool..."

"Well, guess what, you're his semi-identical twin," the brunet pointed out with a smug smile. "You're good-looking, you're pretty fun to be around, so..." he trailed off, and promptly smushed the Rilakkuma in Akaito's face. "Go – find – yourself – someone – hot – and – fun. Screw Kaito and Meiko, for all we care. You don't need them to validate yourself, they're going to drift away from you anyway. I'm not saying just throw them away, that's just total bullshit, but I'm saying you don't need to rely on them to have a good life. You're growing up, you're an _adult_. Act like one, and get a hot girl, have amazing sex with her, take her out on beatiful, romantic dates that don't involve having to comfort her after watching Titanic. Show them you don't need them spoon-feeding you little bits of life. You're not going to learn how to actually _fucking live _from that; so do it by yourself. Got it?"

Akaito blinked, staring down at Kyo. He swept the bear away from his face, looking like he had seen the light for the first time. "So... What you're saying, is, that Kaito and Meiko shouldn't affect my life this badly...?"

"Do I _seriously _have to repeat what I had just said?"

"..." Akaito was silent for a while before he nodded. "O-okay... I'll find someone. B-but, where?"

Kyo groaned loudly, earning himself a few stares. "Dude. Look where we are. _There's cute and hot and beautiful and two of the three or three of the three of them everywhere __AND OH MY GOD, __YOU DULLARD, _HIT ON THEM, FOR GOD'S SAKES, RED KAITO!"

"Woah – okay, no need to shout... I'll do it, I-I'll do it..." Akaito muttered, wary of the attention they were getting. "Um. Kyo. Er – Thanks, dude. Really appreciate it."

Kyo grinned massively, pressing a five dollar note to the clerk's hand, and poking the bear in his shoulderbag, the only part visible being the head. "No problem," he grinned, as if he hadn't shouted before. "I'm just a lifeboat for rent."

Akaito blinked before he nodded, setting off with Kyo again.

_A lifeboat, huh...?_

* * *

An hour had struck and by this time, Gakupo and Kaito had been shopping, having a wonderful time despite not really talking much and still being as awkard as ever. Kaito had switched Kyo's clothes with a nice pair of jeans and an American Idiot t-shirt, and the short-sleeved hoodie and black jeans had remained in a paper carrier bag. Gakupo on the other hand had bought some pretty great novels he planned to pore his nights over with.

Other than the clothes, Kaito had blown his never-ending supply on a large amount of things; music tapes, DVDs, stuffed toys, books, more food and whatnot. Exhausted, albeit enjoyed themselves verily, the two had decided to end their little trip on a hilarious, although ridiculous speculation.

A love calculator.

Neither of them believed at all in this crap; Gakupo was working his way through a Psychology degree, and he knew sure as hell that there wasn't anything to predict a couple's compability, and provided through palm-reading and Kaito... was a bit of a cynist when it came to these things, and really _did _try his best not to have an overly-strong opinion about it.

The two decided to do it for kicks, however; and if they were lucky enough to get horrendous results, hey, that was something they could rub in their friends' faces, right?

"Alright, how much for a reading?" Kaito asked as he approached a dodgy-looking gypsy with a sun tattoo on her left arm, a long sheet of jet-black hair and a fluffy little kitten rested in her lap. Her ring-covered fingers had stopped scratching the back of the cat's ears, and through her black shades, she stared at the two pointedly.

"Twenty dollars," she said in a wispy, airy voice. Gakupo momentarily stiffened at how odd her voice sounded, but decided not to question it – it was just your typical case of fraudery.

"Great - "

"Each." She added after a while, the word having a slightly smug edge about it.

"That's a bit... much, don't you think? Forty dollars for a reading..." Kaito voiced out, raising an eyebrow at the black-haired woman.

"If you don't like the price, get out, you _peasant_," Mew spat out in an oddly harsh tone. "Cough up the forty bucks and I'll do a reading now, or get lost."

"Geez, fine, fine," Kaito grumbled, sitting down. He fished out his wallet and groped around until he got two twenty dollar bills, and slid them to Mew. "There you are, your forty dollars."

Mew stared at the money for a moment before she shook her head. "No. Twenty dollars from each person."

Kaito rolled his eyes and pushed one twenty dollar bill backinto his pocket. "Sister Moon demands it," he muttered under his breath to Gakupo, making him snort slightly.

"Um, here," Gakupo finally said after a while, unfolding two ten dollar bills to Mew, who finally looked pleased about the result; she took the bills away from them and stuffed them in her bra – Kaito screwed up his nose about this, but didn't dare comment about it for the sake of his sanity.

"Right-o, give me your non-dexturous hand."

Kaito willingly offered his left hand, giving it flat on the table, open palm, fingers spread wide.

"... What if you're ambidexturous?" Gakupo asked slowly, hesitantly.

"Give me the hand you write least with, then," Mew answered irritably. "Hurry up, now, time is a wastin'."

Gakupo sighed and rolled his eyes, offering his right hand in the same way Kaito did.

Mew nodded, muttering a soft 'finally', before she carefully observed Kaito's hands, the cuticles of her nails tracing the lines edged deep into his skin. She made unsettling, mixed 'Ooh' and 'Aah' and 'Interesting...' and 'Ah, now I'd be careful if I was you!' sounds that really, frankly, creeped Kaito the hell out.

After around five minutes or so, she finally put down Kaito's hand and picked up Gakupo's, observing his larger hand in the same fashion, although with a little more concentration. Eventually, after muttering the same words she did to Kaito, she then lifted Kaito's hand again and held both of their hands clearly from the sun.

"Keep `em straight," she mumbled, ironing Gakupo's fingers straight.

"Straighter than my sexuality," Kaito snorted. Mew glared at him. "Sorry..."

"Okay, here goes," Mew slowly said, her eyes switching from Gakupo's large hand to Kaito's pianist fingers. "I can see potential, you two have the power to make your relationship go haywire or make it something very memorable. If it's very memorable, the relationship will last for quite a long period of time than most relationships do, but if it's haywire... You _will _be seeing each other again, and everything will grow worse. So be careful about your decisions.

"It's more likely if it's very memorable, not to worry. You two's marriage lines are both very strong, but there's potential that it will also be memorable and haywire. If you do happen, on the rare chance, to overcome your obstacles, then the relationship will tie the knot by itself without one having to propose. Less troubles await. Either way, you two are very compatible for each other." Mew finally finished off with a dramatic sigh, and put Kaito and Gakupo's hands down. A final unsettling smile florished her face before she stood up. "Thank you for your company."

"What the hell was that..." Gakupo muttered, also standing up. Kaito joined him and turned around, only to be greeted by their friends.

"... Hello..." Kaito greeted uncertainly, immediately sticking close by Kyo and Akaito's side, since, by experience, they were the most trustworthy people to be around.

"Hello, loves," Yuuma grinned impishly, placing an arm around Gakupo's shoulder, his other hand holding Meiko's thin hand. "Have fun?"

"A bit," Kaito admitted. "But that gypsy woman seemed like total bullshit."

"'You two have the power to make your relationship go haywire or make it something very memorable'. Oooooh." Kyo mocked.

"What about you, Gakupo love?"

"Dude." The purple-haired man groaned. "Can you stop with all these affectionate pet names you use for literally everyone and anyone you meet? It's creepy as hell."

Well, he dodged a bullet there.

"Okay, we'll split off again at the vans, and we'll meet at Diadem Towers," Meiko decided there. "We'll change the people around here, since _obviously_ we can't keep Yuuma and Merli in the same van without a war happening. Gawd. Um, my van – Kaito, Galaco, Kyo and Merli. Other van, Lily, Gakupo, Yuuma, Akaito and Yohio. Sound good?"

"Yuuuup."

**xxx**

"Is it really okay to come in dressed like this?" Akaito asked uncertainly, fingering the hem of his singlet. "Shouldn't we be, like, in formal wear or some crap?"

"Nah, it's casual wear," Gakupo shook his head. "Usually the only ones who wear formal clothes are either new to this restaurant, or are pretentious brats that like to show off their wealth. It's supposed to be a light, summery kind of restaurant."

"... How would you know?"

The purple-haired man fixed Akaito with a stare. "Dude. I'm head chef of this restaurant."

"Ooh..." Akaito blinked. "Right – Erm. Okay. Yeah."

After a short trip or so, the group had arrived at the entrance of a sleek tower called _Diadem Towers _which was quite famous for all the chic hairdresser's, beauty parlors, clothing stores, boutiques and restaurants and whatnot. Quite a few of the group worked there; Meiko did, in a clothing store and a fashion adviser, one of the many tattoo shops was where Merli worked and Lily did have a job in the gigantic tower as a hotel worker as at the very top floors of the towers was a very chic, posh hotel reception.

"Right, everyone here?" Yuuma asked, looking around. He counted nine heads, discoursing himself before he gave himself an affirmative nod and entered the restaurant.

"Good afternoon, my name is Kanon and I'll be serving you today," Quickly, a ginger-haired girl with dip-dyed purple hair had wandered by them and greeted the group. Her uniform was neat, assumed in a white button-down, a vest and a thin bowtie, all accentuated with a pencil skirt and an apron. She looked at all of them for a second before she noticed Gakupo. "Oh, hey Gakupo! Are these your friends?"

"Mm, something like that," the purple-haired man shrugged nonchalantly. "How's the restaurant going?"

"Oh, it's great!" Kanon assured. "ALYS only broke like, what, four plates today? Everything's gone fine — Anyways, where would you all like to sit?"

"Um, anywhere enough for, er, ten of us is fine."

"Yup! Follow me," Kanon beamed widely and promptly led the ten to a large circular table by the window. Kaito noticed how gentle-hearts this restaurant seemed to be; it was full of teens and adults and kids in flouncy, light dresses and loose shirts and jeans. It gave off a nice twinkle, with the glass walls and a pot of fresh fowers in each table.

_This is a really nice place to work... Pfft. Too bad I can't cook. _

Kaito took his chair out and sat himself in it, being only two seats away from Gakupo. He fiddled around with the cutlery until Kanon had passed them five or so menus. Kaito flipped it open, and was surprised to see these were handwritten; well, of course it'd be photocopird off, but the handwriting was a little refreshing to see, too.

"I'll just have whatever Meiko's having," Kaito shrugged, settling the menu down. Well, that was done.

"Gakupo, I'm guessing you're having your usual?"

"Yup. Same goes for Yuuma and Galaco."

"I'll er, have — Ah, kwetiau goreng," Meiko told brightly. Kaito had no idea whatever the hell that was.

Sounded nice, so he wasn't going to complain.

After a bit of picking and choosing, everyone had settled their orders down. Kanon nodded brightly and whisked herself away, speeding into the back kitchen.

"So what'd you guys get up to?" Kyo asked, always the one to start a conversation. "Akaito and I just went off and bought some stuffed animals. And we found this really cool fish, so now it's just swimming in Akaito's container in my bag."

"Since when did you guys get close?" Kaito asked, raising an eyebrow. Kyo and Akaito simply shrugged and grinned.

"This really nice lady let me do henna on Lily!" Merli said brightly, shoving up both of Lily's pale arms which were flourished in the reddish-brown dye, formed in beautiful patterns. "A lot of fun, the lady did it on my feet too!"

"Huh, woah, that's really nice," Meiko praided. "Me and Galaco went off to buy some piercings and hairdye, and bought a lot of these nice shoes. It's great, we even found this lovely radio that Galaco adored, so we bought that."

"Yohio and I played some football against these other random people around our age," Yuuma said proudly. "We didn't win, but Australian rules. Are. Just. Woah."

Everyone then stared at Kaito and Gakupo. "What did you guys do?"

"Bought food, bought clothes, bought drinks, DVDs, CDs, toys, decorations, you know, the usual crap," Kaito said with a shrug. "Nothing much, really."

Meiko raised an eyebrow, staring at Kaito. "You guys seemed to enjo–"

"And here you guys are!" Kanon interrupted obliviously, trotting to them with about five plates on each arm. Gakupo stood up and helped the ginger out, placing the plates to their respective spots. The ginger grinned widely and bowed. "Thanks, Gaku."

"Anytime," Gakupo managed a small smile before he sat back down.

"Well, enjoy your meals! Anything wrong, don't hesitate to ask~" Kanon sang before she went off again. Immediately, everyone began to dig in, all immersed in light conversation in where Kaito and Gakupo didn't care to join in, having a small conversation of their own - which was a little surprising, as just hours before, they were donating cold blood to each other.

"You think it was a money scam?" Kaito asked, keeping his voice on a down-low to make sure no one even _noticed _they were talking. Gakupo nodded, a light smirk flourishing his lips.

"Of course it was," he rolled his eyes. "What she said before - total bullshit, I think. '_Youuuu have the power to make your relationship haywiiiiire or very memorable' _or whatever shit she said. It was kinda hilarious, really."

"Y'think she's part of a cult?" Kaito proposed, having a joking weight.

"Of course," Gakupo declared, shaking his head. "It's called Haywire & Memorable co., and the members pet weird cats and they stuff forty bucks in their bras as an offering to the Sister Moon."

"Oh my god..." Kaito snorted, shoving a bit of the noodles into his mouth. "That's perfect - Where can I join?"

"You cannot join it. You must be one of the Chosen Ones. You will wake up to find a bra, and only then will you be able to venture off as a member of Haywire & Memorable," Gakupo said seriously, waiting for a moment before what sounded like a chuckle came from his lips and he had to hide his face as he laughed.

"You're an idiot," the blue-haired man chuckled, a large grin tugging the ends of his lips. "That's the best thing I've heard all week."

...

"They're laughing," Meiko pointed out softly to Galaco, a light smile sweeping her lips. "That's good, right?"

"Yeah, it is," Galaco giggled fondly, taking a sip of her lemon lime bitters. "That's probably the first time, right?"

"Yup," the brunette realised. "You know, they _do _make a cute couple, joking aside..."

"That's actually true," Galaco nodded. "Maybe all that money won't go to waste..."

"I don't think, in this case, the money really matters, doesn't it?"

_As long as he's found someone._

* * *

"Yeah, no, I felt like Rachel would've fit better with Joey than Ross did," Yuuma disagreed. "I mean, I know, the baby, but Joey ended up having no one at the end of the entire series. Just think of it; they lived together, Joey was there when the baby started kicking, and he knows a great deal."

"No, that's stupid," Yohio shook his head. "Ross and Rachel, Monica and Chandler, and _Phoebe _and Joey. That was how it was supposed to work. Screw Mike."

"Ugh, Mike was great though! He fitted well with Phoebe. I say Rachel and Joey, Phoebe and Mike and Monica and Chandler!"

"THEN WHAT ABOUT _ROSS!?"_

"Lots of girls fit with Ross," Yuuma brushed off casually, climbing into Lily's van. "He can find someone else. Honestly, that student girl in his class, whatever her name was... You know the one where Rachel hooked up with her father? Yeah, the girl and Ross. That would be cute. Heck, or even Caitlin."

"I don't believe you," Yohio muttered, parting ways with Yuuma as he climbed into Meiko's van. "I hated the student girl."

"Whatever you say~"

Finally, after an hour, they had finished the meal and it was well into the afternoon, being 3 PM; However, Kaito decided that he wanted to spend the night at his old apartment with Meiko and Yohio, as he wanted to grab some more stuff he forgot to bring - namely, his laptop, his portable piano keyboard and so on and so forth. Same went for Gakupo, who wanted to go back to his flat with Yuuma and Kyo for old time's sake, so for the time being, their new house would remain empty.

Kaito was about to climb into Meiko's van, when Gakupo suddenly tugged his arm, turning him around. Kaito blinked. "Yeah?"

Gakupo shifted about for a moment. "Um, I'm going on Lily's van, since Merli and Yuuma can't stay in the van without Meiko wanting to punch them in the face. And Yuuma and I need to talk about some karate stuff, `cause I'm going to start teaching on the weekends and he's joining me. Anyways, since we're not going to see each other for the rest of the day, how about..."

"... Yes?"

"Um." Gakupo hesitated for a moment. "Tomorrow, 1 PM, just you and me at Luna Amusement Park." He proposed, and Kaito had finally gotten it, and realised Gakupo was asking him out on a _date_. When Gakupo saw Kaito's blank expression, he hurriedly added, "Er, not to link this with creepy-gypsy-lady, but... We can make it work. I know, I was kind of a douche, but there's no harm in trying it out, right? Our friends will also finally shut up..."

Kaito thought about it before he nodded, flashing Gakupo a brief smile before he climbed into Meiko's van. He poked his head out the door, looking at Gakupo.

"Okay. See you there."

* * *

**End notes: **Woah, this is the longest chapter I've ever written, at _7k words_. Holy crap.  
Sorry nothing much happened here, just tidbits... It's a little rushed, I apologise, but hey, at least it didn't take me six months to update ;D  
So things are revealed: Yohio and Yuuma are passionate about their opinions on Friends and the ships, Kyo is a lifeboat with an obsession with Rilakkuma and gives hella great advice (Okay, it's my advice... Whatever), Gakupo owns a restaurant and Meiko works at a clothing store! Hey!  
_Diadem Towers _isn't an actual place... Like. Not for realsies. _Luna Amusement Park _is, however; it's an amusement park located right here, in Melbourne! Sadly, I've never been there.  
Well, that's my update! Chapter 5 will be a whole lot of fun to write, do expect updates to come by!  
Please review, fave and follow; They're really the only thing that motivates me to write... So review, review, review!

Bye!

**P.S: **If anyone's wondering about their ages; (Youngest to eldest) Lily is nineteen. Merli's twenty one. Galaco's twenty two. Yuuma's twenty two. Gakupo's twenty three. Yohio's twenty three. Kyo's twenty four. Kaito's twenty five because older ukes are aaaah. So is Akaito's bc twins. Meiko's twenty six. So there it is.


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